Week 10: Wrapping Up

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! This week’s blog will wrap up my final days at my internship and what I accomplished there.

I continued working on the Time in Motion Study and studied two more residents on the south side of the emergency department. Both were rather normal studies as the residents consented easily to the study.

Additionally, I helped out with the urinary tract infection study. In the UTI study, I help assess patients’ pain with a urinary tract infection during their time at the Emergency Department and in the weeks following their discharge. To complete this study, we called the patients by phone a week later to ask about their pain. Sometimes if there is a language barrier, we use a special app with a built-in translator to communicate with the patients.

My survey was also distributed this week. I surveyed the entire research department at Maimonides to understand their opinions on research efficiency and patient participation. My survey determined many results. These include: half of the patients are difficult to find, most patients consent to research, and half of the patients are frustrated with participating in research. These findings are relatively close to my opinions on research at Maimonides as I encounter frustration with patients about half the time too. The survey also showed that research was more difficult to conduct on the north and pediatrics side than on the south side. Patients on the north side can be very harmed which leads to them not wanting to say yes to research. And patients on the pediatrics side are young, so there parents are hesitant about research.